A few weeks ago someone said to me, “In this economy, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get ahead. It’s been nearly impossible to get new clients to sign on, and I think it will be for some time to come. My team feels flat. It’s been a huge challenge to keep them motivated. And I understand why…it’s just so hard out there.”
We talked about it. The conversation went like this:
Mike: That sounds pretty difficult, but not an uncommon story these days.
(To protect anonymity, let’s call the other person David Lee Roth.)
DLR: My team seems like they’re running at 50% energy because no matter what they do, there’s just not the return on the other end for their efforts like there used to be. Click to Read More
I’m always intrigued when I see what real companies are doing to build their brands, increase their revenue, and grow their firms. Here are five outcomes that stood out to me as I was reading RainToday’s latest ebook How 10 B2B Service Firms Grew Their Business in a Down Economy Using Affordable Marketing & Business Development Tactics:
An advertising agency closed $1.3 million dollars in new business with a $600 direct mail campaign and telephone follow up
An auditing firm’s monthly Pay Per Click ad campaign led to a new engagement that earned them 60 TIMES the cost of the monthly ad spend
After implementing a guerilla marketing campaign with a mix of direct mail, telephone selling, and newsletter ads, a data storage company experienced a 14.4% sales bump of revenue “in the six figures”
A consulting firm used a free ebook of repurposed content to generate 4,000 new leads and boost seminar attendance by 145%
A firm used Google AdWords to boost its web traffic by 1,000% and quadruple its sales pipeline
Here’s an excerpt from one of the cases about marketing with live seminars:
Ask a professional service provider about the difference she makes for her clients and you might just hear something like this, “I help my clients first see, and then achieve, better futures.”
If a professional says this, they’re right that the concept of creating a vision of a new future is powerful. So powerful that we have included the concept as a core part of the RAIN Selling methodology. In RAIN Selling, the “N” stands for New Reality. It’s all of our jobs—in business development as well as in our daily work with clients—to help clients conceptualize situations, problems, and possible solutions.
In my recent podcast discussion with Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin, we talk about the power of helping people use pictures to solve problems and sell ideas. As you listen to the podcast, you should look at these graphics. They’re helpful in following along with what Dan and I are talking about, and will help you build your be-amazing-at-the-whiteboard skills.
Service professionals know everything they need to sell their services. It’s how they organize that information and how they approach prospective clients that determines whether or not they make the sale. Michael McLaughlin, author of Winning the Professional Services Sale, talks about how services professionals can convert a sales lead into a paying client.
By connecting, collaborating, and getting commitment, service professionals work to get the sale without overtly selling, which can turn clients away.
When I lived in Brussels I was fortunate to get to know Walt Hopkins, consultant and Arithmodigmophile. Since 01/01/01, Walt has written an almost annual missive on Arithmodigmophilia, a word he coined to describe his love for numbers and patterns. I received his 09/09/09 message today. Compelling and thought provoking as usual.
If you’re going to cover a Barry Manilow classic you had better tread carefully. Barry may not have that much street cred with the kids anymore (if he ever did), but when he sings a song it’s smooth like buttah. When someone else sings his songs, it’s usually smooth like haggis.
The Man in the Chair ad is one such classic. First debuted in 1958, this McGraw Hill advertisement delivers a timeless message with clarity, grace, and impact. If you’re going to mess with it, you had better do it right, lest the world go all Simon Cowell on you.
I think the Business Marketing Association hit the nail on the head with their modernized rendition of the Man in the Chair at their 2009 conference. Nice job, BMA. Now, how about a little Mandy?
Q: Do you have any recommendations for marketing services to service companies? I am often in a position of trying to address the client’s needs but not getting to meet the ultimate client—I feel at the mercy of a client with whom I don’t have contact.
A: This has nothing to do with marketing services to service companies. You could be marketing products to product companies. You could be marketing antimatter at a Star Trek convention. Whatever you’re selling, you have to get to the ultimate client, that special person we usually call the decision maker.
Decision makers are in the position of decision making because they are leaders in an organization. They’re trying to solve problems and they’re trying to build a better future. They have many different priorities and are trying to focus on the greatest impact, and the greatest return challenges to tackle. So they’re not avoiding you! You’re just not getting through to them. Or when a support staff gets your message to them, they say “You handle it. Doesn’t seem like it’s something I need to put on my radar screen.”
My advice in this case:
1. Keep trying to get on their radar screens. Email them. Call them. Send them letters.
2. Appeal to their need and the impact your service will have. They’re looking to spend their time on conversations and avenues that will make a difference. If it’s important enough, they’ll pay attention. If it’s not important enough, perhaps you should sell something else.
3. Perhaps it’s important enough, but your message or communication vehicles don’t convey how important it is. I’d suggest you get professional help getting the message across.
4. Don’t settle for being sent down the food chain. Don’t let yourself be relegated to levels below those that can influence, or directly purchase, your services.
5. Build your brand in the market. Sure, this is a long-term, heavy-investment, high-energy, high-commitment activity. But those that do it succeed, and those that don’t always fight the “best kept secret” battle in the marketplace. That’s usually no fun.
Q: With marketing / business development budgets under pressure, what tools and techniques should be highest priority in terms of creating client conversations?
A: You can use tactics like personal emailing and cold calling that don’t cost anything if you do them yourself, but if you only use these two tactics you’ll be disappointed with the results.
Rough economy and all, most companies are spending dollars somewhere. With lead generation, if you prove that more expensive tactics create conversations, you’ll find budget. At some point you’ll have to. If there were short-term, cheap tactics that worked all by themselves over extended periods of time, everyone would know about them and use them. Then they’d get saturated and overused. Then they wouldn’t work.
People looking for shortcuts end up disappointed, but there are some short-term things you can do.
At a recent RainToday.com webinar that I delivered, someone sent in this question:
Do you have any advice for firms where the majority people or staff are primarily project focused, meaning, they are supposed to be focused on billable work only? Business development isn’t “billable,” where do they find the time?
Here are a few ways I could rephrase the question:
Everyone in professional services at one time or another thinks, “We should run our own seminars!” When folks call me for advice or help about running seminars, they’ve often read some book about how easy it is to get started with seminars, generate attendees, and make lots of money.
In my experience, there are more “first time, out of the gate” failures than successes, and it all starts with misconceptions about what it really takes to make marketing with short seminars successful.
So we at Wellesley Hills Group and RainToday.com have produced the Short B2B Seminar Planning Starter Kit. Above, you’ll find the video that goes along with it, featuring the dulcet tones of narrator Mary Flaherty, our research and content development manager. The rest of the kit includes the following tools and topics:
A few weeks ago someone said to me, “In this economy, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get ahead. It’s been nearly impossible to get new clients to sign on, and I think it will be for some time to come. My team feels flat. It’s been a huge challenge to keep them motivated. And I understand why…it’s just so hard out there.”
I’m always intrigued when I see what real companies are doing to build their brands, increase their revenue, and grow their firms. Here are five outcomes that stood out to me as I was reading RainToday’s latest ebook How 10 B2B Service Firms Grew Their Business in a Down Economy Using Affordable Marketing & Business Development Tactics:
When I lived in Brussels I was fortunate to get to know Walt Hopkins, consultant and Arithmodigmophile. Since 01/01/01, Walt has written an almost annual missive on Arithmodigmophilia, a word he coined to describe his love for numbers and patterns. I received his 
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